Brawler Guides
I've been poking around EverQuest 2 Wiki and I've been *gasp* unable to find a guide for Bruisers. Obviously this had to be fixed and if noone else will do it I might as well eh? As a Bruiser you will be one of the four selectable tanking classes (Guardian , Beserker , SKShadowknight and Bruiser, Which you probably picked if your reading this ;P) Now the first 8 or so levels of the game will be the quickest and (hopefully) least painful experience of the game, but they aren't the most enjoyable because you don't get any kick-ass skills till later on. Now as a Bruiser you will be Evil and therefore have to traverse the "Outpost Of The Overlord". Most of the quests are pretty straight-forward there asking you to go rendevous with the next quest giving npc , activate an object , or kill a few monsters most quests you can skip throught the dialogue (Though I don't recommend this because some of its well-written...really!) Anyway around level four you can leave the outpost because the armor your getting there isn't the greatest and that final-quest weapon isn't really worth the trouble. Now depending on your race (They all even out in the end so basically just choose whatever you want;D this isn't WoWOf Warcraft[Also Abbreviation of the many less pretty names its been given]and so any race can be any class. The only difference is how they look and what their starting quests are. I haven't seen any Ogre Bruisers, but there are probably a few out there. Okay so you've gotten to level four and left the outpost...What you say you don't know how to leave it? Well talk to the first quest giver and ask about leaving or just go south-east of that big tower and towards the huge ship ;P Talk to the captain (The human near the mast) and you'll be heading to your home-area! (Ogres and trolls can be found at the Big Bend)(Ratongas and gnomes are in Temple Street)(Iksars live in Scale Yard)(Kerrans and erudites reside in Stonestair Byway but dont care much for eachother) (I cant remember the other starting areas but they will have alot of whatever race resides in em so it shouldnt be too hard to figure out) Ok your finally in your home-area and your ready to go? Not quite! If you can manage it do the quests your racial mentor gives you (They'll be near the docks where the Marine Bells are located) because they'll give you a fair bit of coin and hopefully some good equipment. After you've completed the Racial Quests head over to "The Graveyard" or "Sunken City" And speak to the npc's with the "Glowing Feathers" over their heads (Feathers mean available quests pages mean finished and ready to turn in) they'll give you a few quests usually with some nice loot (Keep in mind not all quests give Uber Lewt some are meant only to point you to the next quest) By now you should have gained a few levels and gotten a few skills all of which will be located on the skill bar use them by pressing the numbers (Not the F-Numerals but 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - and =)this will activate the skill that is on said number there are 4 kinds of skills for bruisers (Attacks , Self-Buffs , Group Buffs, And Target Buffs) Always activate your Buffs after loggin-in or dying (They'll help you stay alive longer next time) I prefer the Defense-Oriented Buffs but you go with whatever works best for your style of play ;D Once you finish The Graveyard and Sunken City Quest lines goto The Ruins and do the first few quests ( These WILL require a group later on so be sure to join a nice guild or have a few friend who play)you'll get to pick from a few different pieces of armor (Don't know which you'll have because theres a couple of choices) and now your ready to move onto .... The Commonlands *Cue Scary Music* But before we do your gonna have to check your armor. Try to keep your armor close to your level unless you have something like this : lvl 6 Fabled boots 40 mit +10 str +10 Sta +30 Agi and then this lvl 14 boots of crap 18 mit -4 str -3 sta -6 agi ;D Neither exist at said levels but I hope you get the idea. If your in a good guild you can probably have some armor crafted for you either for free or at a members discount. Tradeskilling is a pain in the ass so respect the people who've gotten over Trade-Skill Level 10, without them you'd have not a snowballs chance in hell of defeating the foes you'll face later. Train around East CLCommonlands till about 15 doing whatever quests present themselves then goto WC and do the quests both there and at the nomad camp just west of the entrance to WC (Wailing Caves) both are pretty good but I recommend using Dual-Wieldable Crushing weapons Or Fist wraps. Now assuming your 10+ enter /who lfg or /who all lfg and send a tell to someone on this list who is around or slightly above your level and seems like an advantageous class to include in your group (Buffers are on the top of my list ;D) (Grouping Max is 6 levels either way but higher levels can mentor you so that 1. you get a 5% bonus on experience points and 2. You dont split the experience and 3. You can group with someone of a much higher level than yourself and still be able to play with them. With a maximum of 5 members including your character and with raid groups having an even higher limit you'll not worry about the group caps till later in the gamefor each member in the group the experience is split try to keep experience-based groups to a minimum of members NEVER INVITE SOMEONE TO GROUP IF THEY DO NOT HAVE LFG IN THEIR NAME. This is considered EXTREMELY rude. Instead send a tell asking if they'd be interested in grouping and stating what kind of group you are looking for(Questing , Raiding , Grinding). If they do not wish to group don't ask again over and over as you will likely be reported. Also collections are an excellent way to get rare items and experience they can be collected by selecting a glowing star and left clicking it or selecting a star and hitting "F" If your lucky a guild member might be selling some and be willing to give them to you for a discount or there may be some in the guild bank that you can ask for. (What goes around comes around and being polite goes a long way in Eq2) So basically do the quests your directed to till about 12 then move to CL doing the quests that present themselves there, join a good guild , find some grouping friends , and keep your equipment up-to-date and you'll be set. Hunting Spots 1-4 -- Outpost Of The Overlord (Once you leave you can't return) 4-9 -- The Graveyard, The Sprawl, and Sunken City (Use Mariner Bell for Sunken City and use city map to find the entrances to the others) 9-14 -- The Ruins (Use Mariner Bell) 14-22 -- Commonlands (Multiple Exits from Freeport) 20-40 (Give or take a few levels) -- Nektulos Forest (Entrance in West Commonlands or by ticket in East FreeportWill Send You To The Nek Docks) 20-30 -- Fallen Gate (Located in North-West Commonlands) (Intended for group hunting Extremely Dangerous to solo at lower levels.)